The white reaper
by P4j4r1t0
Summary: After Kayaba Akihiko announcement and the begining of SAO, many players panicked but a boy kept his cool and did what he thought as a good idea, get a beta tester to help him. Some OCs and may contain spoilers if you havent read the side-stories.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_A boy was on the floor, above him was a bar with just a red dot left, and next to him was a boy dressed in black and a girl with long hair…_

"…mi…..do..t…..re…..die….w…..on"

Are they talking to me? …I can't feel my body…..damm….it's funny, that the last boss killed me… so near yet so far…  
Really…this world is-really cool…

"ahaha…looks like i… will be breaking many promises… "

My friend had just defeated the "demon lord" and i was dying; Now that I think back…how the hell did I end up like this?...ah! Didnt it all begin 2 years ago?

**#Congratulation the player Kirito known as the black swordsman has defeated the Demon Lord and cleared the game, now all the ****remaining 6,148 players will begin to log out#**

…. What? You have to be freaking kidding me! After sacrificing myself for the greater good, I am not a hero! Come on! Kayaba Akihiko! Is it so difficult to add me as a hero?

"damm…..even now I can't beat you Kirito….ahahaha..." I breathe one last time "Sorry…."

_The dot left in the boy´s bar disappeared and he became many black feathers that dispersed in the floor._

* * *

When I regained consciousness, I found myself in an otherworldly place. Here, the sunset made the entire sky seem as if it was burning.

I was standing on a thick crystal floor. The orange clouds rolled past slowly beneath the transparent tiles. When I raised my head, I could see a sky dyed by the sunset reach as far as the horizon. As it spread outwards, the endless skies faded from bright orange, to a bloody red, then to a shade of purple.

"Uh? Didn't I die? Man, if this is the afterlife I'm kind of disappointed…. Sure the view is nice and all but, I expected some kind of reception by an angel or a demon"

"Then leave me to be the demon that receives you"

"ahahha nice one, Akihiko" Akihiko? I said that? As Kayaba Akihiko? If it is him, it means that….

"Hahahaha looks like we did clear the game, ahahhahah told you, we would win…..anyway, what exactly is going on?"

"Perhaps you can call it… a metaphorical rendering. Currently, the SAO mainframe that's stationed in the first floor is in the midst of erasing all data from its memory banks. In other words, this world will be completely erased."

"And I'm here because?"

"Because the process takes time and I would like to hear about the life that you had in my world, we have nearly 10 hours after all…."

"Ah…..well since you ask so nicely…. but before that, am I dead?"

"Life can't be recovered so easily. A lost consciousness will never return. The dead will disappear— this fact remains true in every world. I created this place only because I wanted to talk with someone-one last time, although I would have liked it to be Kirito, I suppose that I will have to take you"

"Well sorry for not being Kirito, but you didn't answer, AM I DEAD?"

"no, you are not…..I saved you because it was thanks to you that Asuna didn't die and also it was you the one who gave Kirito the chance to defeat me, in a very interesting way you became a Joker, taking any place when needed"

"Uh…..sure, whatever you say….. Anyway you are telling me that you want to hear 2 years of my life in 10 hours? Well that is kind of difficult, after all so many things happened….."

"I don't doubt it; after all I had always wanted to build that castle, a place that exceeded the limits set upon the real world…..and then in those final moments I saw how Asuna, Kirito and you broke the rules of my world…"

"Aww….aren't you quite the melodramatic"

"Maybe is because my world is ending"

"Yeah, it is quite the story….I think everything really began with your announcement about not being able to leave the game….


	2. That is not creepy at all

**Chapter 1 – That is not creepy at all**

**'I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the log out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it is all part of «Sword Art Online»'s system.'**

Okaaaay-that's creepy, a twenty meter tall man with a hooded robe draped around him with no face, who was also Kayaba Akihiko-according to Murphy's Law this is going to be bad…

"Part of...the system?"

I overheard a guy who looked like a final fantasy character talk to another guy next to him, so I took turns to overheard that conversation and the announce of Akihiko. (AKA: Creepy guy)

**'Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will.' **

**'...also, the discontinuation or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted...' **

**'The signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions.' **

AH! I knew it, Murphy is never wrong-now let's think about it, that is impossible…isn't it?

"Haha...what's he saying? That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The Nerve Gear... It's just a game. Destroy our brain... How is he going to do that? Right?"

Yeah! You teach him fantasy character

"...theoretically it's possible, but...he must be bluffing. Because if we pull the plug on the Nerve Gear, there's no way it can emit that sort of a strong pulse. Unless there's some form of battery with a huge storage capability...inside..."

AWWW! Come on! Just because you don't look like a fantasy character, doesn't mean that you have to be the guy who says that everything bad is possible!

"There...is one; thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery. But...that's totally crazy! What if there was a sudden power outage or something!"

YEAH! Fantasy character 1-common looking guy near him 0 - creepy robbed guy 0

**'To be a little more specific, dislocation from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully get rid of the Nerve Gear. The result—' **

**'—regretfully 213 players have already exited this game and the real world forever.' **

Okay…..this isn't funny anymore if by any little minuscule chance he is telling the true…. I need to find someone who played this game before, a beta tester, and get all the help possible from him. What I already know of this game, will help me only in the beginning.

I started to make a mental list of everything important right there, if I am going to die… IN A GAME, at the very least I'm going to get to the last boss, so I need to:

Reach floor 100

Get a beta tester to help me if possible

Freak out

While I made my list, the people near me started to change and became different, some who used a female character became a male character, others just changed in appearance and they all (included me) got the item #hand mirror #

If you really need to know I was on the former part, my female character became me…..if you want to know why did I use a female character, that is because that way is easier to get free items from other players…..sad people….sad, sad people.

Thanks god though, I used a neutral name so I didn't have to worry about that; I just panicked a little when I saw myself with the mirror.  
Slightly long brown hair and eyes of different colors, a green one and a blue one.

To keep myself of further panic I keep hearing the conversation of the fantas-HOLY SHIT, now he is a bandit, no doubts about that-and his friend who now looked like a girl.

From what I heard, the young one knew a bit about the game. Maybe he had some friends who were beta testers, or he was a beta tester himself. It didn't matter; they wouldn't help a complete stranger. And more important I had to start moving if what Akihiko said was true.

SHIT! My friends are probably playing too…..well, they aren't that bad as gamers so they probably will be ok, no need to worry about them. Even more, how would I be able to help if I didn't know that much about the game?  
Sure, I know a bit but that wasn't going to help me that much. I know how to have an easy start but I didn't know how to keep people alive, if I were a healer I might be able to help them but in SAO magic didn't exist.

Anyway, right now I have to run and go to the next village. If I'm lucky (which I doubt) I will be the first one to get there and I will be able to complete the quest for the #Anneal Sword# today.

I started to run to the northwest gate of the Starting City, in my way I heard a guy shout something about not believing Akihiko, then he jumped over the fence, into the endless void below Aincrad.

I waited with an uncountable number of players, he never came back. Then a guy shouted that a huge stone wall appeared somewhere (he never said where) and that many names were written there. It wasn't difficult to imagine what the stone wall was for: A tribute to the victims of this game.

Seeing that I had wasted too much time I started to run again, I knew the general direction of the village. I had to go past the large plains and then enter into a forest, there I had to keep going until I founded the village called Horunka.

While I keep running in direction to the forest, I found myself thinking about the recent events.

Akihiko has over 9000 people trapped in a game, how does he expect to get away? I mean if he was in the game, he wouldn't be able to keep track of the people that will try to save us from the game by hacking into the system itself. But at the same time if he was outside the game, he wouldn't be able to buy food, after all he probably is a wanted criminal now. Also, what does he gets with all this? Maybe a ransom, yes, a ransom would make sense but he told us to clear the game. Why? He was the creator of this game, so maybe he got crazy with the idea of making his game the most famous game in the world or something like that, after all it is said that to be a genius you have to be crazy.

Ah… Well, at the very least this isn't going to be boring, in fact this has been one of the best starts for a game… Real people dying, going to a village that I only know is somewhere in a forest, and I repeat, somewhere in a forest. Who I am kidding, if it wasn't for the fact that dying doesn't sound good, game or life, I would have already tried to get out of this game by suicide.


	3. Ahh Desicions, desicions

**Chapter 2 - ahh… decisions, decisions**

So, after having the first half of a completely normal and perfect day,  
you know, getting trapped in a life or death game, going to a village that you don't exactly know where it is. I found myself lost in a maze, deep in a forest.

"Nicely done genius, now you are very likely to die thanks to some random monster"

After a while of walking and killing some #Frenzy Boars# that were the most basic monster, I think, I leveled up. I probably would have leveled up before, but I skipped all the monsters that I could, after all my entire objective was to reach the village.

"Yay, I am lv 2 now I can fight…what? A giant bee? A Slime? -Freaking low level game play"

I keep mumbling to myself until I encounter a pair of #poisonous bees#

"I knew it, bees…. that's so cliché for a low level monster"

I prepared my #Small Sword# and charged to them, they were aggressive monsters so is better to start the fight than wait them to attack you; they weren't that strong, but they were really fast. Every time I tried to hit them, they dodged, luckily I managed to kill one after I let it hit me in my left arm but the other bee, stung me in the back and then I couldn't move anymore.

"A paralysis effect?"

Crap, if I can't move soon this won't end well, the bee will kept attacking until I die. I have to do something, but what? I´m sure my brother told me something about how to break a game´s system….

_In a game, the system is absolute. It doesn't matter what you want or do, the system rules everything, that's why I like to hack them. To be able to defy the absolute is what I like, and because of that I do it. _

That doesn't help at all, to hack a game I need a computer and I doubt there is a computer here, inside the game. Meaning my only hope is to wait for the paralysis to end. This is still a low level area, so the paralysis shouldn't last too long.

Finally I could move again, I started to dodge the attacks of the bee if even one hit me I could end up dead, my health bar was in the red zone so I had to be very careful. Finally I got my chance to strike back. Moving my sword I slashed the bee and before it could move away I used **Slant**, making my sword glow with a light blue, and cutting the bee in two.

Thanks to god or maybe thanks to Kayaba, after all he created this game, so in a way is thanks to him that I survive, but at the same time is his fault that I was in such a dangerous situation…

Anyway, I had my hp bar in red and probably the next monster to appear would mean my death, but thanks to Kayaba-it feels weird so I will stick to god-I finally found the village. It only had 10 buildings.

It already was 7.55 P.M and the sun was settling down, meaning that I only had 2 hours or so of light. I didn't know where the quest for the #anneal sword# was, so I started to enter every building. The first building that I entered was the item shop; I had some random drops that I could sell, so I did and got some col (the currency of SAO) I also bought some health potions, in doesn't matter the game, if there are potions you better buy some.

The other important buildings were the Inn and the armory; there I had the first big decision in the game I could buy a better weapon or a better armor. My previous experience made me buy the armor, it's true that my current weapon isn't good but using the sword arts I can balance it, also I don't want to have another near death experience anytime soon.

After that I visited all the other buildings, the last one being a house and the place where you get the quest (of course is the last one I visit)

Before going to do the quest that I received, I used the stats points that I had got from my previous level up. When I opened the status screen in order to distribute the stats I felt a bit sad, there were only 2 options:

Strength (STR) or Agility (AGY)

To make things fair I was told that SAO had a huge number of skills, covering all sorts of battle-type and production-type skills. But it also looks like that a lv 2 like me only has 2 skills slot, that right now were used with #One-handed Sword# and #Tracking#

Sadly the last one wasn't that useful for now, as I had nothing to track nor I had any quest that required to hunt a special monster, with luck it would be useful later on.

After using my stats points, I entered the forest again, this time searching for #Little Nepents# that were walking predatory plants with a stature of a meter and a half….. NOT NICE, that's everything one needs to know about them.  
When I found one I started the fight, I didn't know anything about them so I restrained myself from attacking at first, and finally after a minute of dodging I understood the attack patterns.

It used the pointed edge of its ivy to slash and stab, like a dagger, and expelled acid form its mouth.

After that I didn't have much trouble killing it, when I found the second one I attacked immediately. When you know how to fight them it pretty easy to kill them, much like when you are re-playing a game and already know how to beat every boss.

Then I heard some kind of argument between players, I followed the voices. If I was lucky (I doubt it) I would find people to stay with, when you don't want to die it's better to be in a party.

After running for a bit I found a girl surrounded by 7 #little nepets# her health bar was in the yellow zone, she probably wouldn't survive if I didn't help her, but if I helped her I could die as well.

"Should I help her or should I escape…." I whispered to myself, I am lv 2 right now, if I help her I would get into a very risky situation…  
Ahh…decisions, decisions…  
Whatever… I am sure I can pull it off somehow, if I give her a health potion and start killing plants with her, maybe we can survive…

"HEEY! Accept the trade and start killing plants!" I shouted to the girl, I still couldn't see her name; as I got near her I noticed something terrible, something awful, something….so evil that I thought was just an illusion, so I ignored it for the moment.

She accepted the trade and I gave her a potion while I started to kill plant after plant, she joined me less than a second after the trade.  
After a long battle (3 minutes) all the plants were finally dead. I killed three of them and my health bar got into the yellow zone, she killed four without getting into the red zone, so I got one thing right about the fight; she was strong. In other words I did the right thing helping her; maybe I could convince her to make a party with me.

"Whoa….that was a close call, you ok?" was the first thing that I said after ending the battle.

"…yeah, thanks you"

Wait! That voice, it isn't the tone of a she but the tone of a… HE? It wasn't an illusion!  
She is a he, which means that she isn't a she but that he is a he and not a she! Agh-well, never mind. It doesn't matter…. But he does look kind of familiar.

"Were you alone? I'm sure I heard another person" I said while going to one of the plants that had dropped the item of the quest #Little Nepent's Ovule# in order to take it

"No, he already…" he answered in a low voice

"Ah... sorry" I can't believe it, not even a day and someone already died…

"No…don't worry, you saved me after all" He looked at me

"Uh… you think so? You took care of 4 of them without making your health bar fall into the red zone"

"…." He looked at me and then casted his eyes upward

"Uh…not very talkative, are you? Anyway I'm Yami"

"….Kirito" He looked at me again

"Well…it's getting late and I don't think staying in the forest all the night is a good idea"

"No..."

"Let's go to the village together then. I'm sure if we look for it together we will find it faster" I actually had forgotten where the village was; I mean I know it is in the forest but I didn't remember exactly where.

"You don't know where it is?" he raised an eyebrow

"Um… no, I actually found it before but I kind of forget how to get there"

"Follow me then, I know where it is" he told me

"Ok, let's make a party then" If I was going to get his help I had to make that party

Then he nodded slowly to himself "Yes, let's make one. But you know? You can use the map"

"… I forgot" what the hell was I thinking? I probably look like a total noob right now.

I invited him to a party and to my friends list; if I was lucky I could convince him to stay with me for some time, or at least until I felt that I didn't need help anymore.

He accepted both invitations then he started walking, I followed him and after a minute or two of walking without meeting any monster I started to get bored, so I started talking

"So Kirito, is there anything that you want to know about me? You know….for future references?"

"Had you ever done #full dive # before?"

"Yeah…..boring games though, nothing like this…."

"And MMORPGS?"

"Yes, don't worry about things like that. I'm not a noob." I said and then laughed

"But you didn't know about the map"

"I forgot! Everyone can make mistakes, if I didn't know about the map, how do you think I got here in the first place?"

He stopped and looked directly at my eyes "Then that means that you have played SAO. Luck can't get you here, you must have known about this place and about the village"

"Uh? You mean the beta?"

"Yes"

"Nope, my brother did but he didn't like SAO. He suggested me coming here when I started to play, a little advantage over the other players" In fact my brother gave me his account after playing the beta; he didn't like the fact that he wasn't able to hack SAO "Did you play during it, Kirito?" I was suspicious of him now, why would he ask me something like that if not because he was a beta tester himself,

"…" he stayed in silence, but it didn't matter, that confirmed it; he probably was a beta tester.

"Well doesn't matter" If I make him think I don't care, he might end up helping me. Even if he helps me just for his peace of mind I don't care, help is help.

_Even when people help you for their own good, accept it. Help is help, it doesn't matter the intention, and if you know the reason that caused them to help you, you can use them for your own good. It sounds cruel but that is reality._

He started walking again, me behind him

"Yami, would you like to keep the party tomorrow as well? I'm sure we have more chances of survival if we stay together"

"Sure" Yes, I did it; Even if he isn't a beta tester he´s strong so I don't have to worry about being paralyzed by some freaking bee again.

We walked a bit more, then I remembered the fact that he looked like a girl at first.

"Hey Kirito, a question"

"mmm?"

"You are a man right? Because…well, you know, at first I thought you were a girl" I mean, his face is the one of a girl but his voice and actions are that of a man.

"I don't know what made you ask that but I'm not going to waste my breath answering a question like that" He answered bluntly, maybe I pissed him off?

"Uh… so you ARE a man…"

He sighted "What else could I be…"

"You know, a gi-" I didn't finish the phrase because he glared at me and made me shut up.

After that, we didn't talk anymore and after some time we got back to the village, I completed the quest and received an #Anneal Sword# Kirito also had the quest and completed it as well.

But not everything was nice and happy; Kirito saw a little girl, who even being a NPC, caused Kirito to start crying, probably remember him of his sister or somebody important.  
He has to deal with his own problems, is not like I'm his best buddy for just being in a party with him. So I left him and got a room in the INN.  
If I need to remark anything about that night in the INN, it would be the bed, I'm sure that not even in hell the beds are that bad…..


	4. the girl, the kobold and the door

**Chapter 3 - the kobold, the girl and the door**

So I stayed with Kirito and easily leveled up…that is what I want to say, but reality is different.  
Well…. I did stay with Kirito, mostly following him to leveling zones and doing some specific quests with him, but luckily, that only lasted 2 weeks. Why luckily? Because he is some kind of machine, he doesn't get tired of leveling, and if he gets tired he just sleep for a bit and then he keep going. I was sure I would die of exhaustion while I was with.

Anyway, we went different ways after 2 weeks. He told me that we probably had already done all the useful quests in the first floor. Yes, probably. He never admitted that he was a beta tester even If it was clear and I never accused him of being one.

Why? Because the beta testers are hated, and with much reason, they left the people that didn't know anything about the game in the starting city and never looked back. Personally I think they made the most logical decision, so I don't blame them, in fact I admire them. Now, they don't just carry the hate of the people but also the responsibility of clearing the starting floors.

But even if I admired him, as a normal player I would have to hate him for leaving me behind, so is better if I do (not) know that he is one.

In any case, after leaving him I decided that I needed to keep leveling, not as a machine like Kirito but as a normal player, until someone made a raid to take down the floor boss. Kirito told me that normally a raid of levels 3 would be enough to defeat him, but now with the #you lose, you die# rule it wasn't that easy.

So I bought some potions and a spear, because when I reached level 5 my third #skill slot# was unlocked and I took #two-handed spears# as the third skill, because back when I asked Kirito if there existed a scythe to use as weapon, he told me that he didn't know then I asked if there was a sickle and I got the same answer.  
So I took the nearest thing to a scythe that I could think of and was available: a spear.

Anyway, I went to this floor only dungeon and that is where I am right now.  
From what I knew about it, it had 20 floors with the boss at the floor number 20 and after him was the 2 floor of the tower Aincrad.

"Well it´s a cave….It could be worse."

I entered the dungeon, and the first thing that I saw was some kind of human sized pig walking with a pickaxe in its hands called #Kobold worker#

"….so cliché" Was the only thing that came to my mind. I mean, just how many games have the poor kobolds as the basic enemy? 10? 20?

I looked at its name and it was in deep blue, meaning it wouldn't give me any experience, so I decided to skip until the 5 floor, there I found groups of monsters that went together, 2 #kobold worker# and 1 #kobold chief#  
The chief´s name was in blue, it would give me some xp but nearly nothing.

In the 10 floor of the dungeon there were only 2 kinds of monsters #Kobold Chief# and #Kobold guard#  
the last one had its name in green, which means that he would give me some xp, not too much but some.  
So I went to the 12 floor and stayed there, same monsters, more numbers.  
I keep killing kobolds one after another with my #Anneal Sword# and my spear. Between fight and fight I realized that, for me at least, the spear was way easier to use but the sword was better suited for this kind of monsters. After all the spear has range but the mobs attacked in close-melee combat, making the spear ineffective.

After an hour or so of killing more and more kobold I saw a girl going to the stairs that leaded to the next floor, I ignored her at first but after another hour I decided to go up again.  
She wasn't in the 13 floor and after killing some more kobolds and search for the stairs I went up again.

There in the floor 14 I found the girl, she was smaller than me, probably a meter and sixty tall (160 cm) and had red hair.  
She was fighting 2 #kobold guard# and 1 #Kobold warrior#  
I´m pretty sure that she saw me because she shouted:

"Are you going to stay there like a tree or help me out?"

"Well…if staying here means seeing a cute girl, I don't mind" I replied smiling, her health bar was in green so she wasn't in danger and someone that can get here without losing hp, probably is strong enough to take care of himself.

"Oh….and you are ok with letting a girl get hurt?" she keep dodging attacks, and countering with a claw, a kind of weapon that I haven't seen before.

"aww….if you put it like that, I look like a bad guy"

"What about this, you help me a bit and I will tell you something nice"

"oohh... I like the sound of that" and with that answer I joined the girl in the fight against the kobolds. After all, getting information is always good, even if it is something not so useful.  
When we were done the girl picked an item from the #kobold warrior#

"To the next one!" she said

"There are more?" I asked a bit curious

"Yeah, there is this quest that sent me to kill some kobolds in some specific floors"

"And you are doing this quest that makes you go to the higher floors of the dungeon… alone?"

"Yep!"

"…." I got a bad feeling about this, she is hiding something or she is kind of stupid, but in any case that quest sounds interesting so I will go with her "ok, works for me, let's go"

And like that, she invited me to a party. Her name was Aria and she was really good, being able to dodge all the attacks coming from the kobolds and countering them with her claw weapon. She also used throwing nails when I was up in the front.

A very interesting detail of SAO, was that unless the players were synchronized in a level that I would say "they are psychics" the attacks would probably handicap them when fighting a monster, so a party would have to take turns when fighting, all that because in SAO a #no friendly damage# system didn't exist, so any attack could actually hurt your teammate.

We got to the 16 floor and there she started to head to a gate, if it wasn't because I knew that the actual boss was in the 20 floor, I would have swear that the door leaded to him.

"now a group of kobolds should attack us" was her warning but what I saw was just one huge kobold that was at least 3 meter and a half tall and used a two-handed axe, and I could swear to god that he had a look that said "I am so gonna kill you"

"Um….wasn't it supposed to be a group? I only see one huge kobold" was my immediate question to her

"….last time it was just a group" She looked surprised, so I assumed that she was telling the truth and that she was also a beta tester…. #last time# being the key. But right now wasn't the time to accuse her or hate her; I had one big problem in sight.

"So you are actually a Beta tester, anyway, could this be a change from the be—" before I stop speaking the kobold attacked, and swung his axe against Aria, I reacted and moved her before the axe reached her.

Then I looked at the monster´s name it was #Kobold Punisher#  
during the moment that I checked the monster´s name, Aria regained her focus and prepared to attack, she also gave me some instructions.

"He is pretty big, so we will be able to attack at the same time, we need to take turns when taking the agro, also don't doubt in using your potions, I will start getting the agro, so use everything you have at hand!"

"Understood" Was the only thing I could reply, not that I had anything else in mind to reply with anyway.  
I decided to use my sword instead of my spear, if you ask me why, I blame Fire Emblem.

We started the fight; at first we didn't have many problems because the monster was slow, but whenever we reduced his health bar by a 10% he would start moving faster than before. So the real problems started when we reached the 40% it was at that moment that our health bars started to decrease from green to yellow.

The monster keeps attacking and we keep dodging but now, we couldn't get a chance to counter him without risking being hit and being hit. Between dodging and thinking about where was that I fought a big monster before, I remembered something my brother told me some time ago, when I couldn't defeat a boss from a game.

_Huh? You can't defeat him? Well, think about the games that you have already played. That always helps when you can't figure out what to do. Also you can always try something crazy and then re-load the save if it didnt worked.  
_

That last part isn't really useful, I don't have a save. But I do remember now where I fought big monsters, it was bigger than this one but I suppose it doesn't really matter.

"Hey, what if I climb him and stab him in the head? That would be a critical hit, wouldn't it?" I shouted to Aria

"What? Are you crazy? Like that thing would let you climb him! Just keep dodging and attack when you have the chance"

Yeah right, like I would keep jumping around in order to dodge a freaking axe.

So when he was facing Aria, and gave me his back I started to dash towards him and then when I was close enough I jumped to his back using the sword to stab him.

"This is just like playing shadow of the colossus!" I shouted to Aria, who saw me and froze for a second, then she gave me a look that said #if you die, I won't blame myself#- in fact she actually said it

"If you die, I won't blame myself!"

Im sure that she was concerned about me, because between jump and jump she would always look toward me, probably checking if I was safe. That actually made me a little happy, is not every day that a girl is worried about your safe being.

I kept climbing and stabbing the kobold making his health bar fall really fast, but every time it dropped, he tried to shake me off.  
This kept going on for a minute but my stamina isn't that good, so my mind came up with another brilliant idea, jump and while in the air use my most powerful sword art **Vertical Arc. **I didn't have too much time to think about it, so I just did it.

As he tried to shake me off I gathered all my strength and when he finally stopped moving, I jumped, luckily or unluckily I'm not sure, he turned around giving me a clear shot of his face so I used my art. My sword drew a V in the monster´s face and his health bar was reduced a lot, maybe the head was his weak-spot or something, yet that wasn't enough to kill him.

"Ah…crap" was what I muttered when the monster swung his axe against me in mid-air, throwing me to the wall of the cave and making my health bar fall to the red zone.

I forced myself to get up, yet stayed away of the kobold range, right now it was insanely fast and Aria was slowly losing hp while I couldn't do anything, my own health was in the red zone and the slightest hit would kill me.

"Damm… if I could just hit him with some range weapon" I remembered my spear, I couldn't throw it but maybe if I was lucky I would be able to hit him and kill him before he hit me; Aria´s health bar was now in the red zone meaning that I didn't have time to think, if my brother saw me now he would be angry.

_Never risk yourself for somebody else, unless you know that you won't really be in danger.  
In the case you have to risk yourself anyway? Always have a plan. If you don't have a plan nothing will work.  
In the case you don't have a plan and you have to risk yourself for somebody else? Pray that lady luck is in your side._

"Ok, time for one last crazy idea…" I equipped my spear and raced against the #kobold punisher# I only knew one spear art, and that was **long thrust** in other words, this was an all or nothing bet.

The kobold saw me and moved his axe doing a horizontal slash; I ducked and keep running toward him. Finally I was in range to use my art.

"NOW YOU DIEEEE!"

I used **long thrust,** my spear shined blue, my body was guided by the system and adding my own strength and speed I hit the monster, the health bar started to decrease, but it stopped at 1%

"Just my luck…"

He let out shrill and moved his axe toward me. I held my breath and closed my eyes; I knew death was coming….


	5. Saviour

**Chapter 4 - Savior**

I held my breath and closed my eyes; I knew death was coming….  
But it never arrived, I opened my eyes and saw a sword piercing the monster, I looked up and saw its health bar depleted. The monster exploded into many polygons that disappeared in a second.  
That made me drop to my knees and let out a long breath.

"Are you ok?"

That was the first thing that I heard after I dropped to my knees. I looked up to see the one who asked me that, it was a man.

The first thing that I noticed about him was his heavy armor and a two-handed sword in his hands, then I looked up to his face, he had blond hair and gentle eyes, his smile showed a lot of self-confidence, he was tall as well, probably being 180 cm. He probably had 17 years, kind of remembered me of my brother, although a younger version of him.

"Y-yes, did you save me?" I was still in shock; during the two weeks with Kirito I never had a near-death experience, and that made me too confident. I forgot about the death chance and took too many risks, now I was aware of it again and noticed how idiotic had I acted.

*PAFF*

"Hu?" I touched my cheek; I had been slapped by Aria

"You are an idiot! What the hell were you thinking! You could have died!"

_Never anger a girl, there aren't many things worse than an angry girl._

"Ah, sorry I didn't want t-" The system is supposed to nullify pain. Why the hell did that hurt so much?

"Shut up! Never ever do something like that again! Next time you won´t be so lucky!"

"But I d—" Come on, it isn't my fault that you miscalculated your quest!

"I said shut up! Stay quiet and drink a potion now!"

I couldn't answer, I was being interrupted every time I tried to say anything, I could only do as she wanted me to…yet this wasn't half bad, she had been obviously worried about me.

"Hahahaha-Let your boyfriend rest a second, after all he nearly died" The blond guy kept laughing after saying that.

"Bo-boyfriend? He! Yeah right! I only met him today"

"Then the boy must be quite the player to make you fall for him in less than a day" At this point it was obvious that he was just annoying her, but his serious voice made you doubt. Was he kidding or not?

"Thanks you, if it weren't for you I could have died….no, I would have died" Maybe it was because he remembered me of my brother, but I could only see him in awe, he was like a real hero.

"It was nothing. After all, when in need, people have to help each other and I didn't do that much, I just made the last hit." He smiled at me and looked at me to the eyes

"But never say that you couldn't have done anything without help, it means that you resigned yourself. As long as you kept struggling you will always come on top. Is ok to have help, but never depend on it"

_Never say that you couldn't have done anything without help, it means that you resigned yourself. As long as you kept struggling you will always come on top. Is ok to have help, but never depend on it._

"… I'm Yami, and you?" he said the same thing that my brother, just for that I like him already

"I´m Sean"

While we were talking, Aria started walking toward the door again, and used a key to open it

"Let's go Yami; this is the end of the quest"

"But we can't leave Sean here, he helped us"

"Don´t worry, I wasn't in your party when you defeated the #punisher# so I won't be able to go through the door even if join you now…..but to think that the quest #The Kobold´s treasure# would have changed since the beta, makes me wonder what else changed"

"Eh! You are a beta tester?"

"Aren't you? This quest is difficult to obtain, after all it has some requisites and even in the beta only a few people knew about it"

That confirms it Aria IS a beta tester….. Now that I think about it, counting Aria and Kirito and now Sean. I have only talked with beta testers. That's good, right? "No, sorry but I am not"

"Mmm… and you have come so far in 2 weeks? Well, congratulations then" He directed his look to Aria, probably suspecting her of being a beta tester  
"In any case, please keep the fact that I am a beta tester between us, it would be troublesome if it became common knowledge"

After saying this, he started to walk away. Probably looking for the stairs in order to get to a higher floor, before losing sight of him I quickly made a #friend request# he looked back at me and smiled, and then he accepted.

"Let's go already Yami!" Aria yelled while dragging me toward the door, which was now open.

"Yeah, don't worry"

And after that we entered the door, the first thing that I saw was a chest, then another and another and another and another and another…..

"Whoaa!" I couldn't hide my amazement

She grinned and then said "Pretty nice, don't you think? Looks like the number of chests was increased too"

"This is amazing, just by doing this quest over and over; you could easily become well equipped in a day"

"No, this quest can only be done once every two weeks so be grateful, after all this is the first time it has been done"

I thought about it, the game started 2 weeks ago and doing a quest like this in the first day sounded impossible, she was right.

"I see…. But fifteen chests, isn't that a bit too much for a quest?"

"It depends, after all this is the Kobold treasure room, so if you do the quest again in 2 weeks, you won't get as good stuff as you would have got if you waited 3 weeks and so on."

*CLAP* *CLAP* *CLAP*

"Oh…" After hearing such explanation I could only clap at her. Not even Kirito knew about this quest… So Aria was at the very least best informed than him.

"Anyway, 12 for me 3 for you"

"What? No way! 10:5 that's what I want, I nearly died back there!"

"You nearly died because you are an idiot, I told you not to do it!"

I shrugged at that "what is done, is done"

"You really are an idiot…."

"I will take that as an okay" she probably was right, but I didn't care. This was a golden chance to get something useful. So I opened my first chest and got some col and basic materials like wood and iron.

"Yes! And in the first try" Aria shouted

I looked at her, she had a cloak that completely covered her, only letting her face to be seen.

"What is that?"

"#Spy cloak# a rare item for the first floor that block any #tracking# skill used on me, and a completely must have for my business"

"What would your business be?" I was curious, the need for a item that nullified the effects of tracking wasn't something common.

"I'm the only competent information broker in SAO" she said proudly

I nodded and started thinking about what she had just said; if she is an information broker then is better to make her my friend, hell even if she wasn't one I would like to have her as a friend.

Finally the last chest was opened, I suppose I used all my luck during the fight because I only got col, wood and iron. In any case we decided to go back to the city, but trying to get back to the city in the night would be suicide. I think she commented something about it being worst that my ideas.

"Well, I didn't wanted to use this but I suppose it is needed" She opened her inventory and took a crystal

"Come here" she ordered me

I obeyed, then the crystal glowed and we were transported back into the City called Tolbana.

"That was pretty cool…." I whispered to her, and then a suspicious little half-smile curved her lips.

"Then pay me, I need money to rent a place for the night"

When she said that I got a pretty good idea, or so I thought

"Ok, follow me"

I started walking to a little house located near the exit of the town. Kirito and I had rented it before we went separated ways and we still had 2 days of ownership.

"Welcome to my place, feel free to sleep in my room for tonight, I'm sure we will have a good time together" After that I winked at her, the reaction was priceless.

She froze like a statue, and then she turned red and started to mutter. "b-but w-we meet to-today… and…"

I couldn't help but laugh; she changed her red from embarrassment to anger. I'm sure that if it wasn't for the *safe zone* she would have used her claw against me but that didn't stop her from glaring at me.

"Don´t worry, I rented this place with a friend so he probably is inside as well. He is the kind of player that sleeps early and gets up early"

"…" she stayed quiet but kept glaring at me

I entered the house and she followed me, my surprise was that Kirito was NOT in there. In other words I was alone with Aria, a girl, in an empty house with no supervision.

_Go for it bro, I'm proud of you_

Maybe it was my imagination but I'm sure I heard my brother.

"He isn't here….." This time it was me the one who was frozen and started to turn red, I'm sure Aria noticed this because she started to make things worse immediately.

"hoo….so you bring girls here saying that you live with a friend, and then use the chance to get intimate with them, quite daring aren't you?"

"n-no, I—"my mouth worked, but only noises came out

She started to walk towards me with a little glow in her eyes

"Since you are such a nice guy, I will be taking both beds. That is o-k-a-y?"

I couldn't say anything, the way she said the last part made me go into shock, and the only thing that I could do was nod.

Yet, she didn't stop there and got closer whispering into my ear

"A-ri-ga-tou"

I couldn't do anything, my mind was in blank and my face was hot. After that she laughed and placed the beds together, I exited the room in silence so she could change into something more comfortable to sleep, then I started to process what happened.

My plan had back-fired

At the sudden realization I felt like an idiot, I went back into the room and using some sheets and pillows I made a bed in the floor.  
Aria was using two beds and I was using the floor; yeah that was fair. But she just needed to make it worse and said with a sweet voice

"You know? I am not wearing anything below the sheet "

"Damm…."

I'm sure I said that very quietly, yet she somehow heard me because she giggled a bit.

After that she fall asleep and I passed the night with only 3 things in my head that made me unable to sleep. Not Wearing Anything.


	6. Promise

**Chapter 5 – promises**

I woke up with a sharp pain in my side; I looked up and saw Kirito glaring at me

"Did you really need to kick me?"

"…." He still had an angry face on, so I couldn't help stop myself and said

"You mad bro?"

Then he answered in the most sarcastic tone I have ever heard in my life

"What gave you that idea? Why should I be mad? I mean, I just got here after being hunting monster for more than 20 hours, and find my roommate sleeping in the floor while a girl that I don't know is using both beds. How could I possibly be mad?"

"In my defense she used low-level tactics to make me sleep in the floor….You could sleep in my new bed, is better than what it looks like"

"Just….just move…"

Now I had lost my new bed and also I had to wait until Aria wake up, isn't that just nice? She said that she was naked…. Maybe a little peek won't do any harm….NO! If you do that she will with no doubt send you to jail, also how the hell is she naked? Doesn't the system prevent you from being naked? I will have to ask her about that and many other things….

It was now 10.00 A.M; nearly 6 hours since Kirito arrived and 6 hours since I am awake, Aria woke up and looked at me, I was just getting out of the shower so I was only wearing my pants. Even if you can block the smell of the sweat, it feels pretty good to have a shower after a difficult day.

She blushed and her eyes turned down, then she looked up again and coughed out a nervous laugh. After that she asked me

"What time is it?"

"It is 10 a.m already, and my friend came back at 4 a.m so if you look down to where I slept you can see him, proving that I didn't lie when I said that I had rented the place with a friend"

"uhu…. turn around so I can put on something before getting up"

I nodded, and turned around although the thought of peeking crossed my mind more than once; I was able to control myself. God knows what she would have done.

"Now I'm going to take a shower…" she went into the bathroom and shouted from inside "Don't you dare to peep!"

I scratched the back of my head and then sighted "Don't worry; I will go buy something to eat" Why does she thinks so bad of me, I mean the idea did cross my mind, but I haven't done anything till now!

I looked down to Kirito, he was still sleeping. It's kind of amazing that he didn't wake up.

I left the house, went to the nearest shop and bought a light breakfast; during the way back I heard some guys talking about the current number of deaths in SAO. That made me thinks about my brother. What is he doing right now? How is he? Is he worried about me? Is he trying to hack into SAO right now?

Will I see him again?

I sat down in a bench for about 10 minutes, and after thinking about it I came to a conclusion. He MUST be doing his best in order to help me, so I MUST do my best as well. I MUST survive.

I got up and started to walk back to the house. I entered and heard Aria shouting, I went to the door leading to the room that we were using but before opening it...

"SHUT UP YOU PERVERT!"

"AH! hey, hey! careful!" *CRASH* "AH! that was dangerous!"

When I heard that I knew things were bad, for a moment I thought about leaving again and coming back in an hour or so but then I thought about Kirito, he would probably be dead by then and Aria would have become the first PK of SAO. That wasn't good so I took one big breath and opened the door.

Something flied and missed my head for about 2 cm. That made me froze for a second, when I regained myself I processed what I was seeing. Aria was covering herself with a towel and had her throwing nails in hand; Kirito was on the floor just in front of me. He looked at me and instantaneously got behind me.

I looked behind me and saw one of Aria´s throwing nails in the wall. So that was what nearly hit me in the head. A cold sweat went down my spine.

I said with a forcedly calm voice "A-Aria, what happened? Why is that on the wall? And why is Kirito shivering behind me?"

"THAT PERV! HE WENT IN TO THE BATHROOM WHEN I WAS GETTING OUT OF THE SHOWER!" she shouted and prepared to throw another nail.

"B-but I didn't know she was there, it is your fault Yami!" Kirito shouted from behind me

I whispered to Kirito "Hey Einstein, I'm on your side" Then I looked at Aria "Now, now let's calm ourselves and take a deep breath"

"He is right; please don't throw anything else at me…." Kirito said with a low voice, I swear he was pleading

Aria gave him a short side-glance and then said with a cold voice.

"You saw me… you own me at least 100.000 col"

"That's too much…" Said Kirito in his low voice

"You stay quiet!" She shouted to Kirito. Then she sent the nails in her hand toward Kirito. He was behind me so I had to jump to the left in order to dodge, but he didn't have time to jump so he did the most epic thing I have seen. He did the freaking matrix movement without falling.

"That was too dangerous Aria! He can't pay you and you know it! But what if I, in his place, give you some interesting information in exchange; you said that you were an information broker after all…"

"I'm hearing you…" she said coldly

"What are you going to tell her? I already explained that I didn't know she was here" Kirito whispered to me a bit nervous, he obviously feared the chance of Aria attacking again.

"Look and learn" I answered to Kirito, and then I looked Aria in the eyes "would you want to know about some beta testers? There are two in this room… would you guess who are them?" Sorry Kirito, but right now is that or keep suffering the wrath of the Aria.

At that Aria´s eyes focused on me

"You can't be a beta tester, you are too reckless… but that means that the perv"

Now her eyes were focused on Kirito, who was looking at me with a worried expression

"Now, now, his name is Kirito and if that information didn't satisfied you, I will tell you something even more amazing" now I was smiling and Aria leaned forward, she was calm now, the armageddon was stopped "you will pass the day with me"

"Oh… like a date?" Kirito chuckled after saying that, he seems to have noticed that it was safe now, but instead of thanking me he decided to tease me. Such a great guy….

Hearing that Aria blushed and coughed out a nervous laugh then she looked down and started playing with her fingers

"W-well, since you own me…I su-suppose you can take me out a-and buy me something"

"Eh? Eh! N-not like that, I mean that I have some questions to you…." She looked angry now

_Never, ever say something to a woman and then take it back, the results are NO GOOD_

Thanks you brother for you infinite wisdom! "B-but if you want I suppose we can go for a stroll" Her face relaxed and she blushed again, then she entered the bathroom again.

Kirito was smiling, without a doubt he was laughing his ass off at this display, then he started talking

"Since you two are in so good terms I will be taking my leave- but please Yami, could you keep *that* as a secret… lately, some people have been attacking the people like me, saying that it is our fault that so many people have died…." He frowned after saying that, it was obvious that he didn't like to be called responsible for those deaths.

"Sorry, I didn't have any other idea to calm Aria"

She came out of the bathroom; probably she heard our conversation because she said "Yeah… nearly 1400 people have died already, in only two weeks"

"How is that you know that Aria?" I asked curious

"Didn't you say it yourself? I am an information broker, things like that are basic stuff" she was obviously proud of her information.

"Then could you do me a job...? I want to know how many of those people were like us"

Kirito asked that, he was serious; probably he wanted to know if the beta testers were actually monopolizing the game or if they had died as well.

"It will cost you a lot; that kind of information isn't easy to come by. But don't worry I'm the best. You can pay me when I get the information though"

"Here... please contact me when you have the info; anyway I will be going…. Nice to meet you"

Kirito left the room. I wondered how would Aria contact him, then I realized that they registered each other as friends

"Umm- we should get going"

"Y-yeah, let's go to the starting city Yami"

* * *

We walked for an hour, during our trip to the starting city I played a little game with Aria, she would ask me something and after answering I would do the same

"is there any scythe as weapon in SAO?" I still had the hope that it existed as a weapon, after all what was more awesome than a freaking scythe

"Don't know, maybe in a few floors I can answer you that; your eyes, do you use some contact lent or dyed them?" she asked back

"Natural, is called heterochromia iridum; how the hell am I supposed to dye my eyes?"

"There is a npc in the starting city to change your hair and eye colors; Heterochromia huh? That's pretty cool; how did you meet Kirito?

"In a forest, I helped him with some mobs and we ended up making a party; what is the first floor boss?"

"Please buy Argo´s first floor boss guide book; how old are you?"

"14; the last one wasn't an answer please be serious"

"Eh? But I´m being serious, you just keep asking things about the game, that´s too boring"

"It doesn't have to be fun" I grinned "Who is Argo?"

"I´m Argo; where are we going to go for our date?"

"That's is supposed to be a surprise" Actually I don't know but she doesn't need to know that "how old are you?"

"How rude! Asking that to a girl" Aria processed to hit me in the arm

"Please, refrain yourself from hitting me" I was completely ignored

"Well-since you asked so nice, I´ll tell you…. I´m 14 too"

"That's an interesting coincidence; what´s your name?

"Aria"

"No, your real name"

"Too personal, also it is my turn! Do you have a girlfriend?"

What the heck is with that question? "No, never had the courage to ask a girl out, but I'm just 14 so I think is ok; relationships are overrated…."

"That's just an excuse"

"Then, do you have a boyfriend?"

"Don't need one"

"That's just an excuse" She ignored me again

"What about a brother do you have one? Or maybe you have a sister?"

That question made me remember about my brother again; is he worried about me? What is he doing now? Is he blaming himself? Ah…he would be angry if he knew that I'm being such a gloomy person "…."

"Ah… sorry, I shouldn't ask about that... I'm really sorry, I got carried away…" Aria´s voice was low, she was truly sorry

"It's okay…. I do have a brother, we get along pretty well- in fact he was a beta tester, but he didn't like SAO so he gave me his SAO account after the beta was over…."

"I see…"

I wanted to change the topic so I asked without thinking of the consequences "My turn; which are your 3 sizes?"

She hit me so hard that I nearly fainted, I'm sure that not even the monster from yesterday was so strong

"YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN KIRITO"

"That hurt…. let me change the question please; where can I buy a flute?"

"You play the flute?

"The transverse flute or side-blown flute, whatever you can to call it"

"Well, the third floor has many shops with musical instruments, so you may find one there"

"So I have to survive until then…." When I said that, Aria stopped walking and looked me to the eyes

"Promise me that you will survive until the end"

"Eh?" why is she all serious now?

"Promise it" She was still looking into my eyes, which made me blush a bit, I answered with the hope that she would stop looking at me

"Of course I will, I still have things to do"

"You swear to survive?"

"Y-yeah… why do you want me to survive anyway?

"You are the first true friend that I have made here, and…."

"Don't forget Kirito, he is shy and socially awkward but he is actually a good guy… but what is the other reason?"

Aria blushed a bit and looked away "that's a secret"

We kept walking for a bit in silence but then I remembered something that I wanted to ask since yesterday.

"hey... last night you told me that you were naked in the bed" For what I knew, the only moment you could be naked was when taking a shower

"Y-yeah... what about it!" she shouted while blushing a bit

"I was wondering, how did you do it. From what I know that is impossible unless you are taking a shower"

"Ah... well, in then sys-its a secret!" She shouted again

"bu-"

"shut up! lets just keep going!"

* * *

When we arrived to the starting city, we went to some shops; Aria made me bought her many things and I probably used all the money that I had got from the chests of yesterday, yet I didn't care; it had been a long time since I enjoyed my free time.

When I was with Kirito it was either kill monsters, hearing npc stories to get a quest or traveling from place to place; so my date with Aria was refreshing, when the sun fall down I kept her company till she found a place and rented it.

"I suppose this is good bye…."

"Yes, I certainly had a good time so I suppose I will let you and Kirito out of the hook this time"

"ahahah, thanks you…."

"…."

"Aria… can I add you to my friend´s list? Not as a customer to your job… but as a friend" I scratched the back of my head while I said that, I was really nervous, it was like asking for her phone number

"…idiot, I thought you would never ask! You certainly don't have guts when talking to a girl" a huge smile appeared in her face and then she accepted my #friend request#

"Well then, see you soon-if you ever need something or have another interesting quest don't doubt in calling me! After all I have a lot of free time…"

That was true, Kirito was really harsh when leveling- I already was level 7 and the strongest monster in the first floor was level 6, so right now I got nearly no experience from the monsters and without Kirito to make me train, I had a lot of free time.

"Sure!"

"Well then…bye"

"Bye"

I walked over to the inn, and rented a room-normally I would have searched for a better place but right now I was tired, VERY TIRED….


	7. Preparations

**Chapter 6 – Preparations **

I was going to the town Tolbana, because today in the afternoon, at the town, the first #First floor boss strategy conference# is supposed to be held there.

To tell you the truth, I was scared and excited and scared again, I didn't know how big the raid would be, how strong would the other people be and what is worst, I didn't know if we would defeat the boss….

When I got to the town it was still 2:00 pm, the meeting is supposed to take place in the town center, at 4pm in the afternoon. But I was too nervous to do anything, so I just went to the town fountain that was in the center of the town. There were only 6 more persons there, and I didn't know them so I kept my distance, I didn't want to show that I was actually nervous.

Time passed, it was 3:45 p.m now and I finally saw a familiar face, it was Aria. I approached her by the back and said:

"You know? I wouldn't expect *Argo the rat* to come here"

*the rat* was Aria´s nickname, she got it because of her outfit. Whenever she was *working* she would draw whiskers in her face and put on her #spy cloak# that gave her the nickname of *the rat*. I think the *Argo* was just a random name that she came up with, I didn't really know. She was an information broker after all so I suppose using a fake name with your clients is actually a good idea.

"And I didn't know that you would approach a woman by the back"

"Only those that I know well enough"

"fufufu, then I should be happy to be one of them?"

"If you want to"

During the last two weeks I had become good friends with Aria, in fact I expended most of my time with her or with Sean. She didn't went outside the city too often, she had become pretty famous as #Argo the rat# without doubt he most famous information broker of SAO. On the contrary Sean was never on the city. I think he stayed outside and slept in the #safe zones# of the kobold dungeon, I never asked but I leveled with him many times. He had become my brother inside SAO.

"On another topic, did *Argo´s strategy guide-floor 1 edition* helped you?"

"Hate to say it…but yes, it was worth the 500 col"

"That's good! Then I suppose you are interested in the *floor 2 edition*

"No thanks you, I found the free version of *floor 1* in the shop the day after I bought the book…." I told her with a spiteful voice "Would you care to say, why did you gave it for free?"

"The information is 1000 cold"

"…."

We kept talking and with the time a lot of people started to arrive, there were already 45 persons and Aria was the only woman. Finally I saw another known face.

"Kirito! I thought you wouldn't come" He didn't come alone; there was another player with him "Huh? Did you already replace me?"

"Hi, this is someone I meet earlier" he let me look at the other player, who was a woman.

"Hello…" that was the only thing she said to me, then she whispered "there is a lot of people here…"

Kirito answered in a low voice

"A lot? This number of people?"

"Yes. That is... they gathered here for the first challenge against this floor's boss monster, right? Even though the chance of complete annihilation exists..."

"…." After hearing that from the other girl I couldn't say anything, she remembered me the reason I was nervous.

"…I see"

Kirito nodded, and then looked at the faces of the warriors gathered in groups of threes or fives around. Then he whispered

"...No, not really..."

I and the girl, who I noticed used a rapier, gave him a questioning look.

"I cannot say this for everyone, but instead of «Showing the spirit of self-sacrifice», a lot of people should have come here with «Uneasiness about being left behind», too. Which it is for me? Probably the latter..."

"I suppose you are right… in fact I may be the same" I whispered. I didn't want to be left behind; I want to be there when we clear the game so I have to start here, in the first boss.

"...Left behind? From what?" asked the new girl

"From the front line. Total annihilation is scary, but being overcome by an unknown boss is scary, too." Explained Kirito

Kirito kept talking with the girl, trying to make her understand what he had mean with *being left behind*. Then I saw the face of someone that I deeply admired, and I knew was part of the top tier players being lv 10, while I was lv 8.

"Sean" I called, making him turn around

"Yami?"

"Sean! Is good to see you here, with you being here I'm sure we will succeed" He smiled at me

"Actually I was just passing by" I looked at him with a worried face "but if you want me to stay I suppose I will"

With him with us, my fears went away and I felt that there was no way we could lose. I wanted to keep talking to him, but unfortunately the situation changed before that. With a hand-clapping sound, a well carried shouting voice passed throughout the plaza.

"O—K! Now then, it's five minutes late, but let's start! Everyone, a bit more to the front... there, come three more steps closer!"

The owner of the actually majestic voice was a tall, single-handed sword user with shiny metallic armor for each of his body parts. With a running start, he jumped onto the plaza fountain's edge. Jumping that high with his armor, he must have had very high strength and dexterity.

"Today, thank you for coming to my call! Some people here know me, but I will again introduce myself! I am Diabel, and my profession is *Knight*!"

I unconsciously shouted '"you really wanted to say *Hero* right!" getting a few laughs of the people reunited here.

Actually in SAO, there was no class or job, but the skills you took could define you. For example, people with manufacturing skills as their main could be called a *Smith* or other such job titles—however, I never asked about this to my friends so I don't know what a *knight* skills are.

The man named Diabel was wearing bronze armor on chest, shoulders, arms and shins, with a large long sword on his left waist, and a kite shield on his back. You could say that used the right kind of equipment for a Knight.

"Well then, about the reason I gathered you top players who are active on the very front lines, I don't think I need to say it..."

Thinking about it, I had seen him many times going to the deepest part of the #kobold dungeon# while I leveled together with Sean or alone.

"Today, my party found the stairs going to the top most floor of the dungeon. That is, tomorrow—or, at the latest, the day after tomorrow—we will reach it: the first floor's... boss room!"

That was actually impressive, I had never gone farther than the 16 floor, and I blame the #kobold punisher# that nearly killed me, for my fear of going deeper.

"One month. Coming this far took one month... Even so, we have to set an example. Kill the boss, and reach the 2nd floor! We have to show that this death game can be cleared to everyone waiting at the Starting City. That is the obligation of us top players here! Isn't that right, everyone?"

Again, that was impressive. I felt a bit of admiration for that man, nowhere near to what I felt towards Sean, but something is something.

"Wait a minute Knight-san. Before that, there is one thing that must be cleared up; otherwise I cannot join you."

I looked to the man who had just said that and saw a somewhat large single-handed sword on his back, and some kind of pointed, cactus-styled brown hair.

"pff—look at his hair" I whispered to the group near me (Kirito, Sean, Aria and the fencer girl) Making everyone except Sean chuckle a bit

"Shh… keep listening" Was the response from Sean, making everyone shut up, and that is one of the reason I admire him, he irradiate authority and knew how to use it.

I got back to the cactus head man, and Diabel.

"Opinions are certainly very welcome. But, if you are going to speak, you should tell us your name."

"I am Kibaou and here, there are about 5 or 10 people who need to apologize."

"Apologize? To whom?"

"Ha, isn't it obvious? To the 2000 now dead people. Those guys had monopoly on everything, and 2000 people died in one month! Isn't that right?"

He didn't say it, but it was obvious, the beta testers…. I can't say that I didn't understand him, yet going so far as to make them responsible. That was too much. They did the most logical choice after all.

"Kibaou, your *those guys* are... the original beta testers, right?"

Kibaou nodded

"Those guys, on the day this shitty game started, dashed from the Starting City and disappeared. They left behind over 9000 people who didn't know left from right. They monopolized good hunting grounds and profitable quests, got stronger without a care for those behind. ...There should be some in this group, hiding their beta status. I want them to kneel down once, to the party members their lives depend on. That's what I want to say!"

I looked at Kirito who had his head down; then looked at Aria, she didn't seem worried about it, yet I could see it in her eyes, she was angry; finally I directed my eyes at Sean, thoughts passed behind his eyes like shadows and then he stepped forward.

"May I speak?" he walked towards Kibaou "My name is Sean. What you wanted to say is that many beginners died because original beta testers did not take care of them, and you want them to accept that responsibility and apologize, isn't that right?"

Kibaou was taken aback by Sean´s appearance, who was making full use of the authority in his voice, and took a step back.

"Th...That's right." Kibaou tried to take a step forward but Sean stopped him with a glare

"I don't know about money and items, but I think there is information."

"That's right; Excuse me Sean, but please let me explain it to this man"

A rich and forceful baritone resounded in the evening plaza. I redirected my eyes at the source of the voice.

The man that I saw could be described in one word: huge. His height was easily over 180cm, even taller than Sean. It was said that your size did not have any effect on your stats, but the two-handed battle-axe slung over his back actually seemed light compared to him. His appearance did not lose to his weapon. A fully bald head and chocolate-colored skin. He was not Japanese; maybe he was not even human. I have never seen someone so tall before.

"Please do" said Sean and came back to my side, then he whispered to me "take attention, this is how you fight against other people, without using weapons"

_In the pass we used weapons to fight other people, now we use words. They are way stronger than a gun. While the gun may wound you; words are able to destroy your whole life be it past, present or future._

The muscular giant moved forward, lightly bowed to the other players, and then turned to Kibaou. The difference in height was so much that it actually looked like an elephant and an ant.

"My name is Egil, like Sean explained you want the beta testers to apologize…but" he stopped and took a book from his inventory "This guidebook, you got it too right? Freely distributed from the item shop of every city. Horunka, Medai and Tolbana being examples"

I recognized the book, it was Argo´s strategy guide. I also heard Kirito leak a small voice

"...Fr-Freely distributed?"

Ah… he had also bought it from Aria for 500 col, in fact I think he bought all the editions available, that being until floor 10 with a cost of 500 col each one. That must have hurt.

"There's a commission to the item shop owner, but since the price is 0 coll, everyone got it. It became useful very quickly."

"What about it?"

"This guide, whenever I reach a new village or town, is always found in the item shop. It's the same for you right? The information is too fast, don't you think?"

"So what? That is better for us!"

"The ones, who provided information on monsters and map data in this, cannot be anyone other than the beta testers."

Everyone nodded in an "I see" way, I took a look at Aria who just smiled.

"You see, there is information. Still, a lot of players died. That reason is because they are veteran MMO players, I think. They measured the similarity of SAO to other games, and missed the point of difference. But, right now is not the time to be going after who is responsible. The point of this meeting isn't to search for a culprit… as far as I know"

Egil possessed a very imposing attitude, and his argument was also extremely good, such that Kibaou could only stand in the shadows in silence. Right now, all he could do was glare at the giant in hatred. Then Diabel started talking again.

"Kibaou, I can understand your point. I too went into unknown fields, and finally arrived here after many near deaths. But, like Egil said, isn't it time to look forward right now?"

He paused and I think he directed a look to Kirito

"Even beta testers... no, especially beta testers, we need their fighting strength for this boss strategy. If we remove them, and that result in the attack failing, what would be the point?"

He was really good with words too; he had also given a nice speech before. Many in the audience deeply nodded. I felt the atmosphere change from *lets torture the beta testers* to *please help us beta testers* and I involuntarily breathed out a sigh of relief, my friends weren't in danger anymore.

"Everyone, you each have what your own preferences, but right now I would like you to work together to break through the first floor. If there are people who will not fight with original testers no matter what, then it is unfortunate, but you are free to leave. For a boss fight, teamwork is the most important thing."

After that, we made 8 teams of 6. I was with: Kirito, Sean, Aria, the fencer whose name was Asuna and a guy called Mark.

Mark looked a bit older than me, maybe 15 or 16 years old, he had brown hair and used light armor; He was really serious and didn't talk too much.

* * *

The leaders on our party were Kirito and Sean.

"hehe… so Sean gets to be our chaperon" I muttered

Everyone looked at me with empty eyes

"Please don't be so cold with me"

"Just…Just keep going…" was Sean reply

With a raid of 48 people the 20 floor was cleared insanely fast and in less than an hour, Diabel´s party (team A) discovered huge double doors deep within the maze. After that the clearing raid left the dungeon and we meet again the town.

* * *

To everyone´s surprise at the open air NPC stall shop near the plaza, there was a book called *Argo´s strategy guide: First floor boss*

Everyone bought it and read it, Diabel told everyone to be thankful for the information and a started to prepare a strategy for the boss.

In the end Diabel checked over all the groups of 6 people, and with the smallest number of switches, made seven parties with different purpose.  
Two heavy armor Tank parties.  
Three high movement and high attack Attacker parties.  
Two long weapon equipped Support parties.

The two tank parties will maintain and exchange being the boss target. Two attacker parties concentrate on the boss, the other one kill the guards that appear first. The support parties mostly using long weapons will interrupt the boss and guards attacks if possible.

Simple, but with my experience in MMORPGS it was a good tactic.

Finally our party was free, and Diabel told us that we would take care of any guard that the other parties missed. That was stupid, in other words he wanted us to stay back and don't interfere with the boss fight. Before I could say anything against it, Sean answered

"Very well; It´s important that no one die, leave it to us"

After that everyone went his own way, I stayed with Sean a bit longer and asked him, why he accepted such a stupid thing.

"That man, he has his own agenda prepared. The way he looked at Kirito and me… I think he knew what I am and… I think he wanted Kirito's sword. Anyway he did make a good raid, so it is not our problem"

"I see… but why would he want Kirito´s sword?"

"Huh? Because his sword is a #Anneal Blade +6# of course"

"You can enchant your weapon in the first floor?"

"…you still have your weapon +0?"

"Yeah…"

"Let´s go fix that now"

Sean took me to a player that took the name of *blacksmith* and with the many materials that I had and some others that Sean lent me, I ended up with an #Anneal Blade +5#  
When night arrived, both of us went to the Inn and rented different rooms. Today my belief was reaffirmed. Sean is amazing; he is just like my brother….


	8. First Boss 1 part

**Chapter 7 – First Boss (1 part)**

Fourth December, Sunday, 10 a.m.

It has been 4 weeks since this game started and we haven't even reached the second floor. When I asked Sean about this, he told me that in a month we probably would climb 5 floors with no problems, but first we must break the #fear wall# that is created by the existence of a boss monster.

I didn't really get it, but I think it means that as long as we kill the first boss, everybody will lose the fear of death against a boss.

* * *

47 players were now gathered at the Fountain Square in Tolbana. It could be considered to be the strongest fighting force we could have hoped for at this point. If by some chance, this raid party was wiped out, no, even with its partial destruction, rumor would quickly spread to the Starting City. The resignation that «SAO is impossible to clear» would spread throughout the first floor. Reorganizing a second force would take an impossibly long time — or, it might be impossible to face the boss a second time. Even if we wanted to increase our level in order to challenge the boss again, we had already reached the upper limit of efficiency to gain experience from the monsters of the the first floor.

"So, do you understand Yami?"

"Uh… I think so; it means that if more than 5 people die, we are screwed"

"….yes" Sean answered while facepalming

I looked my party, Kirito was talking with the fencer, Asuna, and Marks was just standing there looking the other groups. Aria didn't come; I suppose that giving us information about the boss was her only intention.

"Hey."

A voice that could not be considered friendly came from behind Kirito. It was Kibaou, he leered at Kirito dangerously while he stood on lower ground, and said in a low voice

"Listen here, today you should stay in the back. You guys are merely here as support."

I looked at Kirito, he didn't react. I thought in telling something to Kibaou but decided to stay in silence as everybody else. But why did he say that to Kirito? Did he know that Kirito was a beta tester?

"Be obedient, you guys can take on the small fry kobold mob that slips past my party as your enemy."

Kibaou spit onto the ground for emphasis, before turning around and leaving. I watched his back as he returned to the other members of the Group E party. I continued to look at him, but was taken aback by a voice from right beside Kirito.

"...What was that?" Asuna said in a low voice. To me, her look gave off about 70 percent more terror than the leer just now.

"W-well ... Maybe he wants Solo players to not be so cocky..." Kirito spoke nervously. I doubt it, how would he know that we are solo players, I'm sure we look like one big happy party from the outside.

Then the #knight# from yesterday started talking, I suppose it is one of his speech

"Everyone, although it may be sudden ―― Thank you all, I am really grateful that nearly all the party members have gathered, with just a single missing person. It is actually ok; after all if you don't feel up to the challenge is better to stay here."

After talking, a loud cheer of *OH* shook up the entire square. It was followed by a waterfall-like applause. After smiling at everyone, the knight pumped his right fist, and continued shouting loudly,

"Now I will say, I was actually thinking of aborting this mission if a group didn't turn up but... this kind of worry is an insult to everyone. I'm very happy that... the best raid party... well, even if the number of people is not enough!"

A few people laughed and whistled, and some people pumped their right hands mimicking to him.

"… This isn't good….if something unexpected come up, we will be in troubles. Too much excitement can be dangerous" Sean explained in a low voice, so only our group could hear him

I did not want to find fault with Diabel's leadership. But Sean was right, there was too much excitement. Excessive tension could lead to a fear-like poison, but over-excitement could also have bad effects, like being careless. In any other mmorpg, being defeated for being over enthusiastic was like a joke, but here, failure could lead to the death of a player. In this situation, it would be a good thing for the players to be less excited.

While I thought about these things, I looked at the other groups from behind. Group B's leader Egil, the two-handed axe wielder and several other people, all had stern expressions and their arms folded in front of them. At critical moments, they would be reliable.

Diabel raised both hands to suppress the cheering.

"Everyone... What I want to say now is this!"

His right hand moved to his left hip, and he pulled out his silvery sword with a loud sound――

"...Lets win!"

* * *

We arrived to the boss gate.

So far, there were no deaths. I secretly pat myself on the chest. After all, a near «Full Raid» party marched, and for a majority of the people here this was their first experience. In this world, «First» was an action that had the risk of an accident and was dangerous, with no exceptions.

Right now I wasn't nervous at all; maybe it was because I have already being in raids in other games. Maybe it was because we had 47 people. Maybe it was because I was together with 2 beta testers.  
No, it was because Sean was together with me.

But that didn't mean that this had been easy.

In fact, there were three situations which were really scary. The people wielding long weapons such as «Spear» and «Halberd», were ambushed by the melee type Kobolds along the road. Ranged weapons were already at high risk from this, and the melee ambush made the situation even worse.

In such a situation, the knight Diabel showed his ability to command precisely. As a leader of the forces, he made bold decisions, like staying to fight while getting others to retreat, using heavy amounts of sword skills to knock back the monsters, and switching between long and melee weapon. These decisions could only be made if he was familiar with being a leader.

But he wasn't the only one who showed skill and leadership, Sean also saved the life of 4 guys, Mark being one of them. The other three were Chaos, Kaoz and Caoz. Their names were unnecessarily similar, that made me think that they were relatives or that they knew each other from before the beginning of this game. The important fact was, though, that all of them now had an unwavering faith in Sean.

Because of these things, I understood something. Diabel had his own philosophy about his leadership, trusting him fully is every raid member's duty_. _That was the reason everyone reached this point. Also Diabel told Sean that he was now the sub-leader of the raid, in charge of it in case anything happened to him.

"Everybody. This is it!"

Diabel lifted his silver long sword up high, and gave a large nod. The raid members also raised their weapons and nodded in reply.

The knight placed his left hand in the middle of the large doors――

"―-Let's go!" With a short cry, he pushed the doors open with all his might.

I looked at Sean, who nodded at me. I followed him and Kirito who were leading our group.

* * *

This is wide...

The room was very deep. Its width from the left to the right wall was about twenty meters. Plus it was quite rectangular. There was a distance of about one hundred meters from the entrance to the back.

Then I understood. This room was spacious in order to contain a gigantic monster. CRAP, if it is like the #kobold punisher#... We are doomed…

The boss room sank into almost complete darkness. On the walls to the left and right of the room, from the front of the room to its back, «torches» were lit one by one. The crude torches noisily blazed.

The stone floor and walls were filled with cracks. Large and small skulls were variously placed to decorate the place. In the deepest part of the room stood a huge throne, and a rough silhouette of something large sat on it.

When I say a huge throne, I mean huge like really huge. As big as the #kobold punisher# and that was just the throne….

The knight, Diabel, raised his long sword, and swung it down in front of him... At his signal, the all the members of the boss monster hunting forces raised a battle cry while rushing into the room like an avalanche.

When the distance between Group A and the throne was about 20 meters, the gigantic silhouette which had not moved initially suddenly jumped. In the air, it spun around once, before landing on the ground, causing the earth to rumble. After that, it opened its wolf-like jaws, and howled.

"Gurururaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

«Illfang the Kobold Lord» Its muscular body over 4 meters tall, covered in blue-gray fur. Its bloodthirsty eyes flashed a golden red. Its right hand wielded an axe made of bone, while its left had a Leather Buckler equipped. Behind its waist, a meter and half long «Talwar» stuck out.

"Be careful Yami, that katana isn't for decoration" Sean told me in a low voice, while we run.

The Kobold Lord raised the Bone Axe in its right hand up high, and struck it forcefully at Group A's leader. Diabel's shield received the blow, causing a dazzling light effect and a loud sound to reverberate within the hall.

As if that sound was a signal, out of various holes located high up on the side walls, 5 heavily armed monsters jumped down. These were the guards, «Ruin Kobold Sentinel». Group E led by Kibaou, and the supporting Group G, quickly moved towards them, locking onto their target. Kirito looked at Asuna, then to the rest of us.

Our group dashed to the nearest Sentinel.

«Illfang»'s HP gauge had four bars. During the first three bars, it would hold its Bone Axe in its right hand and its Leather Buckler in its left, but on the fourth, it would discard them and remove the Talwar off its waist. Its attack patterns would change completely was what Argo's strategy guide had described. After he changed from the Bone Axe to the Talwar, our sword skills and tactics had to change accordingly, just as we had discussed in the meeting yesterday.

I saw a #Sentinel# that slipped through group E and G. I dashed toward it and started fighting.

I started the fight using **long thrust** with my spear, and then I changed to my sword and keep slashing until I found an opening. Then I used **Sonic Thrust,** a sword art, to get the kill.

I kept fighting like that for a long time, while Kirito worked together with Asuna and Sean worked with Mark. Well, it doesn't really matter as long as we keep killing mobs with no deaths, is not like I feel bad because I'm the only one alone… Aria, I am going to complain after this…

"Last bar! Everybody we are nearly done!" Diabel shouted

Then I was surrounded by 4 #Sentinels# it looks like with the last bar of hp, the boss summoned 3 times more sentinels that normally.

"crap—" was the only thing that I could say before I started parrying and dodging attacks, I didn't have time to counter or ask for help. Damm, damm, damm I'm not going to die here! Not in the first boss dammit! I will get back to my brother and also I promised that I would survive!

"AGH!" I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder, a #sentinel # had got me, but that wasn't going to stop me, I kept dodging and parrying. Sean or Kirito would help me that was my only ray of hope and the only thing that kept me fighting.

"Thi... this won't do, fall back! Retreat quickly――――!" Kirito shouted

The Kobold king's huge body shook the floor, as it jumped up high. It turned its body in mid-air, while accumulating power to its weapon. As it fell down, it used the accumulated power, releasing a crimson beam of light.

The beam started to cut everybody; It was coming against me now. I had a bad feeling; right now my bar was in the yellow zone already, if that hit me I'm done for.

I used a potion, I didn't have time to dodge or parry, so it was the only thing I could do

"I won't die, I will survive… I won't die…I won't die…. " If I repeated it enough times it would become true.

The crimson beam was coming.

20 meters

10 meters

5 meters

2meters - the beam meet the #sentinels# and they dissapeared

1 meter- this is going to hurt...

"uoahhhh!"

Sean appeared before me, he prepared his huge sword in order to stop the beam, his sword started to shine. A sword art, he was going to counter the boss sword art with his own sword art.

The beam met Sean´s sword, and there was a huge flash. I closed my eyes, when I opened them; Sean was standing before me, his health bar now in the yellow zone.

"You ok?"

"Y-yes…"

"Good… let's wait for our hp bars to get back to green"

I looked toward the boss, group A was on the floor with yellow light around their heads, they were stunned. Unless somebody saved them, they were screwed.

Not a single person moved to help. Despite carefully planning for the fight during the meeting, followed by the march forward in a mood under the impression of an easy victory, the person everyone relied on, their leader Diabel had been struck down in a single blow. For these various reasons aside from Group C, everyone was bound to the spot rigidly. After the stranded silence, the Kobold Lord recovered from the long delay caused by using its skill.

"Chasing!" Kirito shouted

At the same time, in the front lines, the two handed axe user Egil and several of his subordinates moved in to support the others. Unfortunately, it was too late.

The demi human roared, and the katana in both its hands was lifted off the cut floor and raised up high. It was aimed for the Knight that had fallen right in front of it, Diabel. As if pulled by a red arc of light, the knight was sent flying up high. The damage wasn't very high. However, the Kobold Lord's movement didn't stop there.

While in the sky, Diabel brandished his sword, trying to pull off a sword skill to counterattack. However, because he was unstable in the air, he was unable to use any sword art. The katana directly hit the front of the knight who waved his sword uselessly. An upward attack, continued by a downward one, followed up by a thrust.

The knight's body was covered in three continuous damage effects, the bright colors and strong sounds showed that all the attacks were critical hits. He was blown twenty meters away, over the heads of the raid members, and ended up near the Sentinel which was Kirito´s opponent. He fell almost as if piercing the ground. His HP gauge, which was already red, began to reduce further.

He said something to Kirito and then he disappeared. He was dead, the Knight, the leader of the party was dead. I knew it, if nobody did something soon, our raid was over.

I went toward Kirito, Sean followed me. Kirito was telling something to Kibaou.

"You're the Group E leader, if you are a coward, your companions will die! Listen here, additional Sentinels may still spawn... no, they will definitely spawn. Handling them is your responsibility!"

"...then, what do you want to do. Are you planning on escaping alone?"

"How is that possible? Of course I..."

Sean and I were right beside Kirito now, he looked at us then he said

"――Will get the LA on the boss!"

* * *

**Hey everybody, been a week since my last update. Sorry for the wait, i had a test per day in school and that left me with no time to write.**

**I want to thanks everybody who is following this fic.**

**Also from now on, i will put the skills (sword arts) in bold. And Sean is supposed to be op, but he isnt like heathcliff that has the system help.  
**

**More than that... remember when i say "review if you want" ?  
Well, now it is review if you liked it!**


	9. First boss 2 part

**Thanks for the review *Sonictheblur* althought i didnt make the fanfic just for the anime, is just that while I was going around in fanfiction I noticed the lack of fics for SAO, even though it is one of the best light novels that I have readed- (not that many anyway)**

Anyway your review was completely accepted, apreciated and it also made me cry =/  
The worse part was that everything that you said is true T_T so I tried to fix every chapter till now _ ! The very base is the same but some things have changed.

The last thing... about #Aria# She has nothing to do with #Hidan no Aria# actually I was sure that she was called that. I was wrong _  
I mean, Argo was her name during the beta, I know that much and it also made sense the use of a fake name, I mean she is a freaking information broker, that has to have some range on danger. About the whisker, she used them when she was *working*only. In the beta she was forced to use them, and that gave her the nickname from the very beggining.  
And lastly the part of #Kiri-bou# its never explained why does she call him like that, after the first meeting with Kirito I didnt put a conversation between them. They probably have another encounter that enden with the #Kiri-bou# nickname-but i dont know about that, the fic goes around #Yami# and I never said that he was japanese D=!

Anyway, here is the chapter!  


**Chapter 8 – First Boss (2 part)**

Sean and I were right beside Kirito now, he looked at us then he said

"――Will get the LA on the boss!"

The Last Attack, the hit that killed the boss, giving some bonuses to the killer and normally a problem in raids with people that you didn't know. Some people would calculate the boss health and use their strongest skill in order to get the LA and its bonus.

"I see… very well Kirito; I will take care of the raid so they don't fall in utter chaos. You concentrate in killing the boss, it doesn't has much hp left so I doubt it will be too difficult unless it uses that skill again" Sean didn't wait for Kirito answer and started giving orders to the raid, it took him less than a minute to re-organize the raid and make everyone go back to their places.

What should I do? I doubt Kirito as strong as he is will be able to take the boss alone but I have to help killing the #sentinels#

Kirito was about to start running but the girl called Asuna said to him "I'll go too. We're partners after all"

What? A girl is going with Kirito and I cant decide if help him or stay in the back? God… I feel pathetic.

"...Understood. I'll be relying on you!" Answered Kirito

They turned in the same direction and started to run towards the back of the hall. After a moment of hesitation I shouted to him

"Hey wait for me! I won't let you two have all the fun" I'm going to regret this, I always regret this kind of decisions.

Kirito looked at me a bit surprised, I only smirked "why should I let you become the hero alone" then I looked toward the boss "Let's make sure that nobody else die" They nodded and we kept running.

The panic of just a minute ago had stopped; Sean shouted orders and everyone obeyed, but something was wrong. Kirito suddenly shouted "Everyone, back ten steps towards the exit! As long as the boss is not surrounded, it will not use its ranged attacks."

I realized it then, Sean was only giving instructions as what to do using what we knew, not using what he as a beta tester knew. I felt sad and happy at the same times, that was another similarity with my brother, he would help if anyone needed him but he wouldn't put himself at risk. In this case Sean wasn't letting anyone know about his beta tester status unlike Kirito.

We kept running and when we were just a few meters apart from the front line that was fighting the boss, Asuna violently grasped her hood and cape that were in her way, and flung it off her body. The light from countless torches seemed to gather together and shine brightly. The glossy chestnut long hair of her now emitted a deep golden shine, scattering the dim light in the boss's room.

Asuna's long and wildly fluttering long hair, made her look like a shooting star blazing in the current darkness. For a moment, even Sean´s orders stopped and everyone seemed to look at her, I included, nobody could move their eyes from the girl.

Sean broke the silence yelling "You heard him! 10 steps towards the exit and don't surround the boss!"

Kirito, Asuna and me reached the Kobold King, who turned to face us. "Asuna, this battle will be similar to the Sentinel´s!" For a moment I felt like a third wheel, but then Kirito looked at me and pointed me Asuna. He wanted me to support her, I nodded.

In front of us, the Kobold King´s left hand left the Katana, and then it lowered his stance. At that moment Kirito rushed toward the boss, wrapped in a thin blue light, he ran the ten meters that separated the boss from us in an instant. He used **Rage Spike**, a simple sword rush art.

At the same time, the boss katana glowed green. When his katana started to move it was met by Kirito´s sword. A loud metallic sound rang out and many sparks were formed as the boss and Kirito were knocked back more than two meters from each other.

Using that opportunity created by Kirito, Asuna and I used our arts; she used **Linear** a basic fencing art. In fencing it would have been a basic attack but here in SAO it was one of the fastest basic skills available to use but she complemented it with her own speed making the fastest attack that I have seen a player do. I used **Sonic Thrust, **it wasn't the strongest art that I could use with my sword, but it was perfect to accompany her **Linear** as both were a thrust towards the enemy.

Illfang health bar decreased, slightly, but decreased in width.

We kept attacking but as expected of a boss, its HP was at an amount that couldn't be compared with the small fries like the sentinels. Normally a big advantage of fighting a boss as a team was that everyone could hit him at the same time, because of his massive bulk but currently we 3 were the only ones fighting the boss, because the last skill that he used consumed the HP of everyone else, so they were waiting for their health bars to go back to green. We were alone until they were up again.

We were actually going pretty well until Kirito was caught by Illfang´s katana when it changed its direction from going up to going down.

"Ah….!"

Thinking about it, it was about time he got hit. He wasn't blocking the attacks with a shield after all, he was countering using his own arts and dodging. He wasn't a tank. Asuna that was by my side gave out a small scream and ran toward the Kobold King.

Kirito screamed "Don't!" The Kobold King´s katana was raised again and glowed red. She would get hit if I didn't do something. And if she were to get hit, I have the feeling that Kirito would get angry at me and I'm sure that getting a guy who can stop boss skills with his own arts angry, isn't a good idea.

If Kirito could stop the attacks with his own arts I can do it as well! I copied Kirito´s first movement and used **Rage Spike**, there was a chance of success and a chance of failure, it was a bet that I decided to take.

My body was enveloped by the blue light and then I rushed toward Illfang "Haaaaa!" I think I did stop the attack because Illfang staggered back for a second and although I was knocked back more than three meters and my HP bar decreased a bit (not enough to get into the red zone) Asuna´s HP bar didn't decreased.

Using the opportunity that I created this time, a huge two-handed axe glowing blue hit the boss, I think it was **Whirlwind. **Entering the fray was a brown skinned giant and Group B leader, Egil.

"You guys can rest a second and drink your pots until you have your health bar back into green, we will support you." A few people from group A and D who had finished recovering, followed him..

Kirito nodded while I walked toward him, I used the time that we got from them to take a look at the current battlefield. Sean had the Sentinels totally controlled, he commanded the groups without trouble and even alone he killed more than them. From time to time the guys from yesterday, Mark and company (Chaos, Kaoz and Caos) would fight together with him.

Kirito suddenly shouted at the guys who were taking our places "If the boss is surrounded it will use an Omni-directional attack! I will be calling out the trajectory of the attacks, so the guys in front, deal with them! You don't have to unreasonably try to cancel it with sword skills; you can avoid large damage just by blocking it with a weapon and a shield properly!"

"Ou!" was the answer that he got, and it blended with the roar of irritation that the Kobold King gave.

After a long rest (more like a few minutes) the boss HP finally went below 30%. At that moment, one of the tank players tripped over. His luck was really bad as he was positioned right behind Illfang.

"Get out of there!" I shouted together with Kirito, but it was too late. The boss acted as he was surrounded and jumped in a high vertical jump (again) It was going to use that deadly skill again.

Kirito acted and jumped beside the wall. I followed him, though, I didn't know what was he going to do I had my HP at green, completely full so at the very least I could take one full hit. Then he flew up diagonally into the sky, it took me a second to understand that he had used **Sonic Leap, **it was basically **Rage Spike** but could be aimed toward the sky. He hit the left section of the waist of Illfang, stopping him from using that crimson beam again. The Kobold King crashed into the ground and before it could get up I attacked him using **Sonic Thrust** followed of a **Vertical **(a simple art that made a vertical cut).

Soon my attacks were followed by Egil's six men; they activated all their vertical cutting sword skills at the same time. Axes, maces and hammers wrapped in lights of various colors, roared as they rained down on its body. Bright lights and loud sound effects exploded, and Illfang's HP gauge which was shown at the top of the field of vision went down scratch by scratch.

I noticed that we were taking a serious gamble,if the Kobold King´s HP was reduced to nothing before it got up, it would be our victory. If it got up, he would try to use his skill again because he was completely surrounded, and this time Kirito wouldn't be able to stop him because **Sonic Leap** cooldown was a bit long. I could try to copy Kirito, but the chance of success would be nearly zero. Also I wasn't that crazy to try it anyway.

Egil's group who had recovered from the delay of their techniques, began to get into the motions for the next skills. The Kobold king stopped struggling at the same time, and its body started to rise.

"We are not going to make it?" Shouted Kirito, then he ordered Asuna to use **Linear** one more time.

The weapons of six people hummed once again, throwing the boss´s giant body into a swirl of light effects. However, before the lights faced it roared and stood up. Its HP was left with only 7%.

Asuna´s **Linear** hit the boss before it jumped reducing his HP by 1% but it didn't stop him. He was about to jump, Kirito wouldn't be able to stop him again….Then Sean appeared, he jumped and using his huge sword he slammed the boss into the ground, it wouldn't stop him from jumping but at least it would delay him. His HP was reduced to 3%

Sean shouted my name "YAMI!" I reacted and used my combination of **Sonic Thrust** with **Vertical** again. The boss received my attacks and smirked like he had already won, then he jumped, he only had 1% left but we failed—he would kill us…

But Kirito didn't give up; at the same time I was attacking he ran toward the monster and jumped together with him. He showed a smile at the boss and in mid air his sword drew a V slashing Illfang´s from his left shoulder to his body and from it to his right shoulder. I knew that art. It was **Vertical Arc **and with it he got the LA on Illfang.

The Kobold king's gigantic frame, suddenly lost its strength, and fall onto the ground, as it gave a howl, on its body various crack appeared nosily, snapping and crackling. Both its hands went slack and its katana fell on the floor. Right after that his body shattered into millions of fragments and scattered in all directions.

As the boss disappeared, the remaining Sentinels in the back seemed to have scattered into the void as well.

The hue of the shining torches on the walls changed from a gloomy orange into a bright yellow and from god knows where, a cool wind swept across the room taking away the heat of the battle. Nobody dare to break the silence, it was like everyone expected the boss to revive.

Then the system broke the silence that no one dared to, it appeared in everyone view showing experience gained, the distribution of col and finally the items obtained. Still nobody said anything until Sean broke the silence with his sword raised in only one hand (even though it was a two-handed sword) he roared "WELL DONE EVERYBODY, WE DID IT"

As everyone that was there expected that declaration, their expressions lightened up. After a short moment, a "WHOAAA" cheer occurred. Some people threw both hands up in the air. Some embraced their comrades. Some danced nonsensically. In this storm of uproar, a large figure slowly got off the floor and walked over to Kirito. It was the two-handed axe user, Egil.

"Those were wonderful commands and brilliant sword skills beyond even that. Felicitación, this victory is rightfully yours." Even with the Spanish word in the middle, the giant pronounced the sentence perfectly, and as his mouth closed, he had a large grin.

Kirito stayed in silence for a moment then he slowly said "No…" but was interrupted by a huge shout "―――― Why!"

As I turned halfway around, due to that loud shout that sounded like a lament, the entire room became calm in an instant. Looking away from Egil and Kirito, I turned to see a man in light armor, a scimitar user, whose name I could not recall. However, as soon as his mouth parted and the distorted words emitted from his mouth, I understood.

"―――― Why, did you leave Diabel to die!" I think Kirito said something but I couldn't hear him.

"That's right! Because... Because you knew the skills the boss used, didn't you! If you gave us that information from the start, Diabel wouldn't have died!"

Speaking as if he was vomiting blood, the remaining raid members began to mumble. "Now that you mention it..." "Why? It wasn't even written in the strategy guide..." Such voices were born, and gradually spread across the room.

I thought Kibaou was going to start yelling how evil the beta testers were, but he was in silence. In his place a guy from his group pointed Kirito with his index finger and said:

"I... I know! This guy, he's a beta tester! That is why, the boss attack patterns, good hunting spots and quests, he knows all of them! He hid them despite knowing about them!"

Luckily for Kirito, Egil went to his rescued and said "Even so, the guide that was handed out yesterday, it was written that it was only information on the boss's attack pattern during the beta period, right? If he was really a beta tester, wouldn't his knowledge be the same as in the guide?"

"Tha-That is..." The guy shut up, but in his place another one said "That strategy guide was a lie. Argo's information shop was selling lies. That person was a beta tester after all, there's no way she would have given us the truth for free."

I had to do something; they were going against Aria I had to do something! I was about to take a step forward but Sean´s hand stopped me, then he took a large breath and said

"Then you are saying that all that was written was a lie? Then what about the beginning of the fight? Why was everything going on perfectly? Even before that, the guides of Argo helped everyone here, myself included. I doubt that there was a single lie there" He made a pretty nice explanation, with that Aria was safe—but what about Kirito?

"Th-then how do you explain that he knew more than the guide!" Sean didn't flinched at that, but he didn't have an answer.

Then an arrogant laugh was heard, when I searched for the origin of it I found Kirito "Hahaha! Beta tester, was it? Don't lump me together with those amateurs."

Did he break under so much pressure? What the hell is he saying? I have a baaaad feeling about this.

"Listen here and remember this. SAO´s #Beta Test# had a ridiculously low pass rate for the lottery draw. Out of the one thousand people, how many real MMO gamers do you think got selected? Most of them were just newbie players who didn't even know methods of leveling properly. You guys here are much better than that lot."

Everyone was in silence, nobody dare to say anything after hearing such a statement.

"――But, I'm not like those guys. During the beta test, I reached floors that no one else could reach. I learned of the Katana Skills that the boss used since I kept fighting mobs that used katanas from a floor way higher. I know way more other things too, there's no way even that Argo person could even match me."

Then it noticed what he was trying to do, he was dividing the hate against #Beta testers# into those who knew how to play a MMO and those who were just lucky to play the beta.

The person, who first pointed Kirito as a beta tester said out in a hoarse voice "That's... no longer on the level of a beta tester... that's totally cheating, you are just a cheater!"

Everyone started to call Kirito cheater others stayed with the beta testers. The words mixed up together and in the end a new word appeared #Beater#

When he heard it he proclaimed "Beater that has a good ring to it. Exactly, I am a Beater. From now on, please do not lump me together with those former testers."

From then on the beta testers were divided the majority #Testers who are just lucky guys# and the remaining few #Beaters#

Everyone fell silent, Sean looked Kirito to the eyes and they nodded to each other "Very well, Beater. You go on alone to the next floor; we don't want to be near you"

Kirito nodded again "Yes, I will go and #activate# the second floor´s transfer gate. You can go back to the city and wait for the transfer. I won't help anyone that wants to come with me, against the mobs that appear in the way"

And like that he put on a black cloak, probably the drop from the LA, and started the walk toward the next floor. The rest of us, watched him in silence, then Sean announced that we were going back. I didn't know what to do. I could go with Sean and forget about #Kirito the Beater# or go with this hated character. Everyone left with Sean, except the girl called Asuna that after a while, went up to the second floor of Aincrad, following Kirito.

I thought about what to do for a minute that felt like an hour. The logic side of my mind told me to leave Kirito alone, but deep down I wanted to go with him. He helped me, he helped Aria and he saved a lot of people and his reward was a black cloak and the hate of god knows how many people.

Finally my logic side won the battle and I started to go down the stairs, back to the city. But Sean sent me a PM that made me turn around and run toward the second floor.

"If you can chose, between what you should do and what you want to do, don't doubt it. _Always follow what you WANT to do, no what you should do. Trust in yourself no matter what, sometimes the logic solution isn't always the right one"_

How could I have forgotten, my brother always told me to do what I wanted to do, not what I should do.

I found Kirito; he was talking with the girl Asuna. I heard a bit of their conversation, it looks like they didn't notice me coming.

"...The next time we meet, tell just how did you carry me out of that labyrinth section."

"Aah…" Kirito look thoughtful for a second then he answered with a simple "I understand"

"...Then, see you again, Kirito."

When she passed me, I could see she was smiling. The fencer Asuna, she was quite the beauty.

Kirito noticed me and said my name "Yami…."

"…You know that I can't be friends with #Kirito the Beater#" I said coldly

"…." He looked down and clenched his fist

"Now, I will delete you from my friend list. Is that ok, with you?" I didn't need him to agree, yet I asked him.

"…Yes" He looked up with completely blank eyes. It was scary how lifeless he seemed.

I deleted him from my friend list and at the same time, he probably lost me from his list.

"Now…" I looked at his eyes (they were empty, scary as hell" and stretched my hand "Nice to meet you, I´m Yami and you?"

He looked surprised and his eyes regained the spark of life (thanks good, that was scary) "Wh-what are you doing?"

I acted like I didn't know what he meant "Uh? What do you mean?" I smiled "Anyway, would you like to make a party? It looks like we are the only people at this floor"

He closed his eyes, then he opened them and smiled as well "Sure, I'm Kirito by the way"

"Do you know where the city is? I'm afraid I would probably get us lost if I take the lead"

"You don't know? You can use the map"

"Ah! I forgot"

And like that we started walking toward the city, with my NEW friend Kirito.

* * *

**Thanks you, thanks you! I know it isnt that good, but i tried my best anyway!  
Please review and point my mistakes so i can fix them!  
Anyway, review if you liked it/think it can become better**

Next chapter will be a jump to the 25° floor!  



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